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William Wilberforce, the British parliamentarian and abolitionist, told his colleagues, “Having heard all of this, you may choose to look the other way, but you can never say again that you did not know.”

Monday, August 10, 2009

The 'Pins', Useful idiots of the 19th Century

HEADLINE: Aug. 10, 2009 - Senate Committee Apologizes to All Native Americans for Violence and Maltreatment by U.S. Citizens-The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs passed a resolution by voice vote last week apologizing "on behalf of American people" to all Indian tribes for the mistreatment and violence by American citizens.

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The Pins, Useful idiots of the 19th Century

History repeats itself, over and over, and over and over we seem to not learn.

What follows is a perfect microcosm of our current political life.

Cherokee Tribe, No. Georgia, c. 1830 - all one ‘tribe’ , right?

About a third of the tribe became ‘civilized’ in the late 1700’s/early 1800’s, becoming Christian, educated, aristocratic, prosperous. The other two thirds progressed, embraced the Church, but remained ignorant and more entrenched in ‘traditional’ ways and jealous of their more successful neighbors.

An ambitious, soon to be proven power hungry man was elected as ‘Chief’ under a Constitutional government of Executive, Legislative and judicial branches,along with a few simple laws that were easily understood and executed.

As the tribe fractured over the question of progress and forced or voluntary Indian Removal, alliances and factions grew more antagonistic. The poor, uneducated masses were easily bribed with power, money, status, whatever and were urged to distrust the ‘others’, the leaders of their tribe who had brought them all to prosperity and peace.

First public discourse became scarce, either through intimidation or by ‘vote’. Then the executive, proclaiming an emergency, canceled the next election and set himself up as a dictator for the next 35 years. The Chief convinced the people to ‘hold out’....that the US would not remove them, that somehow ‘he’ would save them, if they just ignored the inevitable.

And ignore it, they did, as they watched one family after another being moved to stockades, being moved at bayonet point out of their homes....not huts, but modern homes of the time, much better than the white settlers. Thousands of them died, and ALL of them suffered.

But did they blame the Chief? The Chief had their ear and their allegiance as he fed their misery and hate. Why would they blame him? But they had to blame someone and they became organized in their hate as they became militant with insignias of crossed swords, and became known as, “The Pins”. The ‘others’, the third who tried to save the tribe, but were not allowed to have voice or representation, were known as the “Ridge Party”.

Silencing them was not enough. Doing everything the way the Chief and the ‘tribe’ wanted to do it, was not enough. Now the ‘Pins’ wanted blood. In 1839, they assassinated Major Ridge, his son John and Elias Boudinot. Over the next few years, they killed anyone they could associate with the Ridge Party, one of them my grgruncle.

Some of the Ridge party who survived were forced from Indian Territory for years rather than face more death. They bought land and settled in Texas and called their settlement “Mt. Tabor”, near other Cherokees who had settled there decades before. They were ‘safe’ but they had no voice in their government, either tribal or USA.

The killings went on for years and the story of what happened to them all after they returned to Indian Territory is fascinating, but the message of this story is about power, and ignorance and greed and how one does not survive without the other. The ‘Pins’ were just useful idiots molded to keep the power hungry, in power. The Pins loyalty to the Chief was not in their actions unlike the SEIU, AARP, La Raza, ACORN enforcers of today. They will bully, bribe, silence the opposition for Obama's phoney healthcare plan, rig the census, whatever bad legislation is pushed. It’s ALL about what’s in it for THEM.

Most Native American tribes today are, sadly, ‘Pins’...... demanding apologies like all the other special interest group minority ‘victims’, lining up for a handout to trade favors with the politicians.

This ‘declaration’ by the senate stating WE apologize, is speaking for all of us without our representation. No one alive today owes any ‘Indian’ alive today ANYTHING. They simply use their dead ancestors, the real victims, to get something they want but aren’t responsible enough to get for themselves.